Pope urges Tanzanians to resist programs linking aid, family planning

Published: 2005-03-11

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Programs that link economic aid to family planning are "affronts to the dignity of the person and the family" and must be resisted, Pope John Paul II said in a written message to bishops from Tanzania. "The unjust practice of linking programs of economic assistance to the promotion of sterilization and contraception must be strenuously resisted," he wrote. Such programs "threaten to undermine the authentic Christian understanding of the nature and purpose of marriage," which must always be open to the generation of new life, said the text. The pope, from his 10th-floor room at Gemelli hospital, personally delivered his written message to Tanzanian Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam and Bishop Severine Niwemugizi of Rulenge. The Vatican released a copy of the message March 11. Bishops from Tanzania were in Rome for their "ad limina" visits, required of heads of dioceses every five years to report to Vatican officials on the status of their dioceses.

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